The Texas Freedom Colonies Project

Equity + Freedom's Footprint in Dallas Freedman's Towns from UTA CAPPA on Vimeo . November 18, 2017 Organized by the David Dillon Center for Texas Architecture College of Architecture, Planning, and Public Affairs University of Texas at Arlington Equity + Freedom’s Footprint in Dallas Freedman's Towns is part of the Physical City Track of the festival. That track deepens understanding of how Dallas was historically built to keep groups separate by race and income, and explores what ideas create spaces that bring people together. Andrea Roberts, assistant professor at Texas A&M University and founder of the Texas Freedom Colonies Project, is the keynote speaker.

Pictured, Mary Shankle (Liberty Community, Newton County) and Gwen Bluiett (Mount Union, Jasper County) at the 2014 Shankleville Homecoming, Photo by Andrea Roberts Andrea Roberts, PhD is the founder of the Texas Freedom Colonies Project and is an Emerging Scholar Fellow at the School of Architecture, University of Texas at Austi n. This presentation represents the culmination of the first phase of her research with descendants of Black settlements (also known as Freedmen's Towns or Freedom Colonies) any of which were founded by former slaves. The presentation was made at the Purple Hull Pea Festival, in Shankleville Texas (a Freedom Colony) . Results of this initial ethnographic and participatory action study were discussed with some of the participants. Email Andrea Roberts to request the PowerPoint presentation that accompanied the audio or to learn more about her research.